Also, just for reference, I'm basing the powers of the items off of the 7 deadly sins & 7 contrary virtues.
Any assistance is greatly appreciated!
3e has Weapons of Legacy, which was admittedly a pretty lackluster supplement, but it could maybe be tweaked to, well, not suck.
In 4e, you can just use a chunk of the treasure parcel. For example, say someone's got a regular old +1 sword (360gp), that just dramatically killed a fire creature, so you want to make it a +1 Flaming Sword (1000gp). You just do 1000-360, get 640. You could just give 640 gp less and upgrade the weapon, or count the upgrading as a Level 2 item (520gp) awarded to the party and give 120gp less.
I actually thought Weapons of Legacy was a good concept. I found myself today wondering if anyone had converted it over to 4E somehow.
Good concept, but the execution left a lot to be desired.
As far as converting it goes ... just do what I said above, and add some ritually stuff to it.
Lethargy
Magic Armor (any, Rare)
Daily Power - The wearer may grant themselves a +(variable) bonus to all defenses for the rest of the encounter.
DM's Power to activate when feeling rather cruel - The character becomes tired, and must take a short rest. If in combat, the player counts as dazed/weakened/slowed for (variable) turns.
The idea is that the more they use the magic item, the more powerful the bonus, and the more powerful the drawback. I had the idea from listening to a podcast about cursed items, and having them be a bit more fun and useful than just "You're stuck with a crappy item."
I'll also list the sins and virtues -
Lust/Luxury - Chastity
Greed - Charity/benevolence
Wrath - Patience
Pride - Humility
Envy - Kindness
Gluttony - Temperance/Self-control
Sloth - Diligence
Hope that clarifies things a bit more, I don't really post too often lol.
> and must take a short rest. If in combat, the player counts as dazed/weakened
> /slowed for (variable) turns.
As soon as anyone sees a property like that, the item will go straight into the junk heap.
It's possible to have an item with a drawback and make it work, but not when it's that crippling and definitely not when it's "whenever the DM feels like it".
As soon as anyone sees a property like that, the item will go straight into the junk heap
Agreed. That's going to be residuum in nothing flat.
If you're wanting items that get different powers over time then look at the Artifacts and maybe use them as a basis for making a low level item with maybe one power, then have plotted out what other powers and bonuses the item will get as the player gains levels, or maybe accomplishes specific goals. That's what I'd do.
As for your armor, yeah...junk pile. No offense it's just a bad armor that I'd be surprised anyone took it unless they already had a bad armor and even then, not worth it for the minus. I would say with the armor you have, give them a bonus to their defenses for the encounter, but maybe they gain a -1 to speed. That would fit with the Lethargy thing but wouldn't be a bad minus for the bonus.
The link for item leveling gave me some great groundwork! I appreciate it!
DM's Power to activate when feeling rather cruel - The character becomes tired, and must take a short rest. If in combat, the player counts as dazed/weakened/slowed for (variable) turns.
Instead, have the chance to get bit by your armor be inversely proportional to how hard you make it work for you.
If PC gains +1 from it, DM rolls 1 (on d6) for this effect to kick in, 5 turns later.
If PC gains +2 from it, DM rolls 2 (on d6) for this effect to kick in, 4 turns later.
and so on.
(I think I would have it give you weakened for bonus# turns.)
If the PC still has this armor at L30 (when he needs a +6 just to stay competitive) ... well, I've never seen such a lazy bum calling himself an adventurer, sleeping on the job like that all day.
I read Weapons of Legacy and agree that it is a neat concept. The closest you can get in 4e is the rules from the back of Adventurer's Vault.
long as the dm wasn't mean about it why would a armor that coused a curse when the dm feal about it become instent garbage r u guys assuming the dm is going to abuse such a ability? seriously a good dm would have such a power activate at times that eather made sence do to over use of the good power (which I woulkd make a at will power) or when it would enhance the story and improve player enjoyment.
in 3.5 we had a sword that could at will couse mind blasts was prety strong and nice sword drawback was that it attracted psyonic creatures to the char and moved the creatures hostility 1 to the negitive basicaly the more the player used it the further away such creatures would be attracted from and they would prefer that char as a target if combat insued
The players loved it was both the blessing and bane of there exsistence in that game
much could be the same with the armor maybe perhaps
Lethargy
Magic Armor (any, Rare)
minor action-at will Power - The wearer may grant themselves a +5 bonus to all defenses until the end of there next turn.
Activated at dm descretion based on how often power is used- The character becomes tired, and must take a short rest. If in combat, the player counts as dazed/weakened/slowed save ends.
does the power have a nasty bad effect yup, has a cool good effect also, and long as u have a good dm and don't try to overuse the iteam then it should not triger all the time. could also be like 1 in 6 chance to activate bad dm rolls (so he can fudge the dice if the resoults would realy hurt the party or something) and perhaps have it last 1 round per time the armor was used since the last time the bad trigered or perhaps make it +1 in 6 chance per time it is used so each time it is used the chance the bad will trigger increases by 1 roll same round the power is used soemthing fo the sort..
long as the dm wasn't mean about it why would a armor that coused a curse when the dm feal about it become instent garbage r u guys assuming the dm is going to abuse such a ability?
Probably because the item was tagged with 'Power to activate when the DM is feeling cruel'. In either event, the drawback is not worth the benefit, and nobody will want to use it.
Might I point out that if the dm is indead running the game as dms tend to do being thats there job them everything is mor eor less indirectly triggerable by the dm.
set sword only triggers on a full moon when a red dragon is near by well guess what if dm says it's a full moon and a red dragon hapens to be fling by then it triggers... whats the difrence.
that said yes definatly the good and bad must be equile or the good must outway the bad or the bad must be super rare or else the iteam in question is garbage no matter how it is trigered. dm option or some other trigger.
***added after post*** I am reminded of The matrix when he see the cat then sees the exact same cat. remember if you experience dejavu during a dnd game it's just the dm suddenly changing the game world to fit his needs. be afraid be very afraid specialy if men in suits dressed all prep like show up afterwards lol. srry just a random thought...
> what if dm says it's a full moon and a red dragon hapens to be fling by then it
> triggers... whats the difrence.
Notwithstanding that the lunar cycle is usually less arbitrary than that, there isn't any difference. "I declare there's a full moon and a flying red dragon whenever I feel like it," amounts to the same bad design (and bad DM attitude).
In any case, becoming weakened or dazed on a whim is a crippling drawback, and a trigger of "DM whim based on how often its used" is essentially making it a gotcha power rather than a helpful one.
A suitable drawback is one that has a clear and unarbitrary trigger condition, such as this:
Defensive Surge Weapon.
Effect: You gain a +5 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
Aftereffect: You take a -2 penalty to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
+5 for one round, -2 the next. Overall it's a benefit as long as you have some awareness of when a major attack may be imminent - but it's also not something that cripples a character "because the DM feels like it".